Markieff Morris
Markieff Morris was traded to the Washington Wizards on Thursday afternoon. Getty

The 2016 NBA trade deadline is highlighted by the deals that didn’t happen, more so than the ones that went down before 3 p.m. ET on Thursday. A few big names were reportedly available, but no All-Stars were moved.

The Houston Rockets were trying to deal Dwight Howard, since they are not championship contenders and the center is expected to opt out of his contract this summer. But Houston couldn’t find a team that would meet their asking price, and Howard will finish out the year with the Rockets before likely becoming a free agent.

The Atlanta Hawks were open to trading Jeff Teague and Al Horford, but they will remain put. Pau Gasol went nowhere a day after it became public that the Chicago Bulls would be willing to trade him. Blake Griffin was involved in trade rumors in the days leading up to the deadline, but the Los Angeles Clippers have kept their superstar forward.

The Sacramento Kings were involved in multiple rumors, but they couldn’t get a deal done. A potential trade involving Gasol and Ben McLemore never came to fruition.

Markieff Morris and Jeff Green were among the best players to be dealt on Thursday. Morris averaged 11.6 points and 5.2 rebounds per game for the Phoenix Suns before the All-Star break. Green averaged 12.2 points per game with the Memphis Grizzlies, and he's headed to his fourth team in his eight-year career.

The Detroit Pistons were the most active team at the deadline. Two days after sending Brandon Jennings and Ersan Ilyasova to the Orlando Magic for Tobias Harris, Detroit added two more pieces to their frontcourt as they make a playoff push. Detroit is a half-game out of the postseason, but they trail the No.3 seed Boston Celtics by just 4.5 games in the standings.

While no top tier players were traded, there were plenty of smaller deals made. Below is a look at the trades that went down on Thursday before the deadline.

Detroit receives Donatas Motiejunas, Marcus Thornton; Houston receives protected first-round pick; Philadelphia receives Joel Anthony, second-round pick

Cleveland receives Channing Frye; Orlando receives Jared Cunningham, second-round pick; Portland receives Anderson Varejao, conditional first-round pick

Utah receives Shelvin Mack; Atlanta receives second-round pick

Oklahoma City receives Randy Foye; Denver receives D.J. Augustin, Steve Novak, two second-round picks

Portland receives Brian Roberts; Miami receives second-round pick

Washington receives Markieff Morris; Phoenix receives Kris Humphries, DeJuan Blair, protected first-round pick

Atlanta receives Kirk Hinrich; Chicago receives second-round pick

Memphis receives Lance Stephenson, first-round pick; L.A. Clippers receive Jeff Green

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